"Dame dame dame, que te voy a dar ... una guayabita de mi guayabal."

5.31.2008

Smithsonian Folkways Job - Spanish "highly desired"

WEB PROGRAM SPECIALIST
SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS RECORDINGS

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is looking for a talented, creative, experienced, and proactive person with ethnomusicology, web technology, writing, and interpersonal skills to serve as Web Program Specialist to create, solicit, coordinate, and edit content for its websites. This position is located in the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (SFR) division of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH) unit in Washington, D.C. The position functions as Web Content Development specialist for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and Smithsonian Global Sound (SGS) websites, www.folkways.si.edu and www.smithsonianglobalsound.org, and additionally as Financial Development Assistant to the Director & Curator of Smithsonian Folkways. It is a Smithsonian trust fund position, supported mainly by earned revenues and grants, and is based in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution is an equal opportunity employer.

Major job duties and requirements are described below. Applicants should send a statement of interest and qualifications no longer than 1,000 words and a resume to Smithsonian Folkways Director & Curator Dr. Daniel E. Sheehy at sheehyd@si.edu or Smithsonian Folkways, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 520, Washington, DC 20013-7012. Electronic submission is preferred. Application review will commence July 1, 2008. Employment would begin as soon as possible after selection has been made.

MAJOR DUTIES

The major duties of this position are three-fold:

1) under the general guidance of the Director & Curator of SFR and its SGS initiative, independently initiates efforts to develop new content for the SFR/SGS websites; employing research skills and drawing from a broad knowledge of the world’s musical cultures, conceives and writes engaging thematic and multi-media “articles” for the website, e.g., a feature on harp music around the world, diverse dance musics of Southeast Asia, or women’s changing role in traditional music; performs secondary research on the SFR/SGS audio content and related materials; using ethnomusicological knowledge and approaches to music and culture, creates engaging new “albums” that cut across diverse albums in the collections, developing compilations of audio tracks elaborating specific themes; provides creative, collaborative feedback in response to content suggestions from curators and other content providers; employs web technology skills and familiarity with a wide range of musical cultures to!
function as managing editor of the upcoming Smithsonian GlobalSound e-magazine; edits content created by others; publishes content to the SFR/SGS websites; coordinates CFCH curators and other personnel in developing appropriate content; and, in collaboration with the SGS Technical Director and the Director of Marketing & Sales, ensures that the SGS content is maintained, updated, and marketed. [Approximately 60% of time]

2) works pro-actively with educators, educator networks, and education organizations to facilitate the development of culturally diverse educational materials, such as lesson plans, utilizing SFR/SGS content, and to facilitate their placement and availability on the SFR/SGS websites. Works to build and strengthen SFR/SGS connections to educators and educational institutions, via the SGS TNT (Teacher-Nexus-Teacher) network. Employs knowledge of web social networking to build broad-based teacher affinity groups. [Approximately 20% of time]

3) works closely with the Director & Curator and other appropriate CFCH staff in fundraising efforts to advance the missions and programs of SFR and SGS, including researching funding possibilities to match programmatic initiatives, drafting and tracking funding requests, and coordinating fundraising tasks with relevant persons within and outside the Smithsonian. [Approximately 20% of time]

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIRED

An understanding and appreciation of the Folkways collections in its widely diverse cultural, stylistic, and historical context is required in order to carry out the duties of creating new “music exhibitions” on the SFR/SGS website and other content to be developed by curators, outside experts, and institutional partner archives, distributors, and collaborators.

A broad understanding of musical cultures worldwide and of the needs and opportunities for their utilization for educational purposes is necessary in order to facilitate the development of appropriate content by and for educators. At least a Master’s degree in ethnomusicology or closely related field and bilingual ability in Spanish and English are highly desired.

In order to create effective and visually engaging content for the website and its upcoming Smithsonian GlobalSound e-magazine, and in order to effectively reach a broad audience with its content, expertise in internet use is required, including knowledge of major search engines, new-media trends, social networking, music/video downloads, and podcasting and other web 2.0 applications, and with the ability to use effectively a range of computer software programs in order to create, edit, and publish text, audio, images, and moving images to the SFR/SGS website. Preferred programs include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint), web publishing software, media players, RSS, multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari), and, at an intermediate level, html (ability to format content for web publishing, including text formatting, image formatting, hyperlinks, and tables), and database functions.

Knowledge of fundraising principles, entailing the ability to identify potential funding sources, to draft funding solicitations, and to track fundraising efforts accurately, are required in order to secure adequate financial support for a wide range of projects carried out by Smithsonian Folkways, as well as to provide timely and accurate reports to funders.

Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively both orally and in writing to a variety of constituents are required in order to relate to and organize a wide range of collaborators, including staff, curators, outside cultural experts, educators, institutional partner archives, corporate and foundation funders, artists, and others. This includes knowledge of a variety of formats required for reports, memoranda, correspondence, correct manner of address, spelling, punctuation and grammar to identify errors and type material in final format.


Salary:
Recruitment is for a position to begin at the IS-9, Step 1 level (currently $48,108, plus standard Smithsonian benefits), with the potential for advancement to the IS-11 level.

5.29.2008

In Miami, Spanish is becoming the primary language

Link

Desnutrición en el Chocó - culpa de la violencia

Ya estamos tan acostumbrados a leer noticias de pobreza y desnutrición en el Chocó - como los medios lo presentan como una falta de modernidad. Pero si los afros llevan 350 años ahí, y los indígenas miles, porqué será que ahora precisamente se está viendo esta desnutrición tan berraca?

Hay que ver más a allá de las explicaciones desarrollistas, que es por causa de la "pobreza" (de plata sí, pero en medio de esa naturaleza, quien se muere de hambre?) Nos muestran imágenes de niños indígenas descalzos en Bogotá, pero las causa exógenas de sus problemas apenas empiezan a revelarse:

Por ejemplo:
“en algunas zonas por la restricción que impone la fuerza pública a la entrada de alimentos a las comunidades indígenas aduciendo que son ‘para la guerrilla’, incluso comida que es para los restaurantes escolares y los desayunos infantiles. En otras zonas, algunos de los productos de pan coger no se han podido cosechar dado que les ha entrado ‘enfermedad y se han secado’, cuando no se lo comen los actores armados, quienes también restringen a los indígenas la posibilidad de ir a sus fincas”. Enlace

Se refiere en particular a un group de Emberás que llegaron de Bagadó (Chocó) a Pereira, donde aparentemente la alcaldía no los aceptó y los envió a Bogotá. Linda historia! Enlace

Conference: Racism and Discrimination in the Americas / Conferencia: Racismo y Discriminación en las Américas

The Latin American and Caribbean Community Center and Cidadao Global host US-based Durban Conference Call with WCAR International Coordinating Committee Member Margaret Parsons

Tomorrow, Friday May 30th at 1:00pm EST, Margaret Parsons will Margaret Parsons will joining Cidadao Global and the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center to discuss the upcoming Durban Prep Com (Americas) that will take place in Brasilia next weeks and the 2009 Durban Review conference as well as the 5th Summit of the Americas.

Please join us at 1:00pm EST. To join this conference call

Conference Dial-in Number: (616) 597-8000
Participant Access Code: 486016#

Margaret Parsons is the Executive Director African Canadian Legal Clinic in Toronto, Ontario

Please review the Summary of the Durban Process Meeting that took place on May 8th, The Themes and Objectives of the upcoming Prep Meeting, and if you are interested in participating, please download the accreditation form (you must submit it by May 30th).

Read the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center and Cidadao Global (LACCC/CG)Press Statement

The Latin American and Caribbean Community Center and Cidadao Global (LACCC/CG) will be attending the Regional Preparatory Meeting that will take place in Brasilia, Brazil from June 13-17, as well as organizing a series of consultative meetings and Durban process trainings. If you would like to join the national Durban Committee 2009 and/or keep up to date with the NGO and civil society process, please visit http://durban2009.wikispaces.com.

Wikispaces

Cidadao Global and the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center are U.S.-based organizations committed to the application of the human rights framework in the United States while addressing issues such as racist and discriminatory practices and legislation, class and gender. For more information please visit www.cidadaoglobal.org and www.lacccenter.org

Conference: Contested Modernities: Indigenous and Afro-descendant Struggles in Latin America

The 2009 Lozano Long Conference sponsored by the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies will have as a topic Contested Modernities: Indigenous and Afrodescendant Experiences in Latin America. This will be a scholarly gathering to discuss the specific contours of disparate modern experiences in Mesoamerica, the Caribbean and the Andes, where ethnic markers led to fundamentally distinct modernizing processes than elsewhere in the continent.

Considerable progress has been made in scholarship over the past two decades, to address the numerous conceptual failings that had left Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples invisible or marginalized in relation to dominant narratives and analytical frames. To an important degree, these contestations have been carried out by indigenous and Afro-descendant intellectuals themselves, in a way that has served to highlight the closely intertwined relationship between scholarly trends and societal politics. Yet an important facet of this scholarly transformation remains woefully incomplete, perhaps reflecting the difficulties of the corresponding political challenge. It is generally acknowledged that Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples face parallel histories of racism and oppression, and that their struggles for rights and redress follow similar patterns as well. But when it comes to empirical research and sustained analytical work, the most common pattern is to address the two separately, rather than viewing both in the same analytical lens. In the realm of literature and literary analysis a similar pattern holds. There surely are sound political and analytical reasons in particular cases. But the divide itself, and the different emphases within each body of scholarship, also betray some suspicious parallels to the racial ideologies to which both peoples have been subjected over the past 500 years.

This conference will be dedicated to probing this divide, by showcasing scholarship and political interventions that place indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in the same analytical lens. We seek to explore and problematize this divide, without assuming that it should be eliminated, or that it should stay in place. Rather, our guiding premise is that rigorous historical, humanistic, and social analysis of the underlying question will both energize scholarly debates, and contribute to the bridge-building of commonality and difference, from which the struggles of both peoples stand to benefit.

The conference will be held at the University of Texas at Austin on 26 to 28 February 2009.

The Keynote Speaker will be Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal), Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Director of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and Director of the Center of Documentation on the Revolution of 1974 at the same University. His most recent books in English are Democratizing Democracy: Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon (2007), and The Rise of the Global Left: The World Social Forum and Beyond (2006). He is one of the founders of the World Social Forum.

Other invited speakers include James Anaya, James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people; Ginetta Candelario, Associate Professor of Sociology and Latin American and Latino/a Studies at Smith College, an expert on Dominican communities and identity formations, race and ethnicity in the Americas, Latina/o communities and identity formations, and Latina feminisms; Arturo Escobar, Distinguished Kenan Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose most recent work identifies the political ecology framework developed by the Colombian region's social movement of black communities, and suggests that this framework contains important elements for rethinking sustainability and biodiversity conservation; Michael Hanchard, Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University who has written widely on black politics, race in Latin America, and comparative racial politics; Aida Hernandez, Researcher-Professor at CIESAS (Center for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology) in Mexico City who has worked and lived among Guatemalan refugees and Chiapas' indigenous peoples on the southern Mexican border since 1986 and is the author of Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico; Bettina Ngweno, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at the University of California, Davis, whose recent book, Turf Wars: Territory and Citizenship in the Contemporary State analyzes the local, national, and international construction and transformation of the state by examining Afro-Colombian struggles over territory and citizenship; Irmalicia Velasquez Nimatuj, Guatemalan K'iche', Maya anthropologist working on ethnicity, gender, democratization, and globalization; and Catherine Walsh, Professor of Social and Global Studies and Director of Latin American Cultural Studies at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, in Ecuador, who has worked with Indigenous movements for many years, and is now involved with the emergent Afro-Ecuadorian movement.

These scholars have all been centrally involved in debates about Afro-descendant and/or indigenous politics, culture, and history in Latin America. They will anchor the various thematic areas around which the conference panels will be organized, which include but are not limited to:

1) Post-capitalist, post-liberal, and post-statist societies; 2) Alternative modernizations or the end of coloniality; 3)Artistic manifestations of disparate cultural experiences; 4) Points of convergence and points of divergence in indigenous and Afrodescendant experiences; 5) Legal and political struggles for rights and new citizenship regimes; 6) Communal systems, stability, non-capitalist practices and non-state forms of power; 7) Human rights, indigenous communities, and Afrodescendant communities; and 8) Religious practices and alternative modernizations.

Those interested in participating should send their abstracts (between 250 and 300 words) as
well as a short bio-bibliographical notice (200 words) to the two convenors: Dr. Arturo Arias and Dr. Charles R. Hale, at Arturo_arias@mail.utexas.edu and crhale@mail.utexas.edu. The deadline for sending the proposals is October 1, 2008. Acceptance will be notified by November 15, 2008. Be sure that the abstract makes clear the connection between your paper proposal and the concept statement of the Conference

This Conference is organized by an eight-member Conference Steering Committee from across the UT campus. All decisions are made collectively. Members are Arturo Arias (Spanish and Portuguese); Jossianna Arroyo Martínez (Spanish and Portuguese); Karen Engle (Law);Virginia Garrard Burnett (History);Frank Guridy (History); Charles R. Hale (Anthropology); Juliet Hooker (Government); and Shannon Speed (Anthropology).

Human Rights Gig/Trabajo en Derechos Humanos

WITNESS is recruiting a Program Coordinator - North America (new position):

WITNESS is seeking a PROGRAM COORDINATOR to work at its Brooklyn headquarters in New York. The position will have a primary focus on supporting partnerships and implementing trainings to enable human rights organizations and concerned citizens in the U.S. to integrate video and related online technologies into their advocacy campaigns.
This position provides an exciting opportunity to build WITNESS' first full-scale North America program, building on an existing record of collaboration and partnership with groups within the US.

For more information Click Here.

Cobertura de cultura negra en los medios

Primero, una entrevista con la señora Ministra de Cultura. Hay algunas cosas en las que no puedo estar muy de acuerdo con ella, pero me gusta su estile y su biografía me parece interesante
como contraejemplo de las narrative folklorizantes de los afrocoombianos - de hecho, parece a veces qae ella, como afrorola, está de una manera más cómoda en Turino que Timbiquí, pero que ahora está - al igual que el país entero - descubriendo las negritudes rurales. Enlace

Y, hablando de cultura y negritudes rurales, El Tiempo hizo una votación de las 10 personas más importantes de la cultura colombiana de los últimos 10 años. Me parece que después de recibir la votación, cambiaron un poco las reglas, y ahora se trata simplemente de "las historias inéditas" de los "personajes de la escen cultural" - nada de más importantes ni de votacíon, así que me parece que los mismos de El Tiempo escogieron. Pero bueno, eso no es tan importante como los resultados. De los "10 de la cultura" todos trabajan o con culturas populares or, en el caso de algunos teatreros, con sectores populares. De los 10, 4 son negros - entre ellos Rafael , fundador del Sexteto Tabalá en San Basilio de Palenque; el compositor y músico chocoano "El Brujo" Alfonso Córdoba de Quibdó. Pero quisiera felicitarles a dos amigos míos, primero mi mentor y practicamente padrino musical, el Maestro Gualajo, José Antonio Torres de Guapi. Y, por sorpresa, nombaron a Marino Grueso, joven guapireño que maneja la Casa de la Cultura y la Biblioteca en Guapi. Conocí a Marino en 2003, y el hombre es muy piloso y me parece que ha transformado lo que es la Casa de la Cultura, en su planta física y en sus programas. Así que felicidades a los dos, y felicidades a Guapi, que tiene dos hijos suyos entre los 10. Enlace

Pero cabe una pregunta, comparando la entrevista de la Ministra con lo de Los 10 de la Cultura: si los negros (y no parece ninguna mujer negra en la lista de los 10) ya son tan importantes en la cultura folklórica del país, eso los mantiene en el papel de entretenadores de los blancos, en salvajes nobles, en transformadores de la ciudadanía, o que? Es decir, como se ha transformado (o no) la noción de "cultura" para abrigar a los que hacen los negros, y como se ha transformado (o no) la noicón de "negritud" para abrigar lo que llamamos "cultura"?

5.25.2008

"La pobreza en Cali tiene color"

El 36 por ciento de la comunidad afrocolombiana que habita en Cali se encuentra sobre la línea de pobreza. Los caleños no pertenecientes a esta comunidad, son menos pobres (31 por ciento).
Enlace

5.22.2008

Feliz semana de la Afrocolombianidad / Happy Afro-Colombian Week

157 years since the abolition of slavery in Colombia. Racism of course still continues, as is covered by Semana magazine (see links below). Plus the website of the Observatory of Racial Discrimination at the University of the Andes in Bogotá.

157 años desde la abolición de la esclavización en Colombia. El racismo, obviamente, sigue, como documenta la revista Semana.

Proyecto de ley contra la discriminación (video):
Enlace

Las penas del racismo (multimedia)
Enlace

Finalmente, la página del Observatorio de Discriminacíon Racial de la Universidad de los Andes: Enlace

5.19.2008

Racism in Bogotá / Racismo en Bogotá

Esto de una amiga antropóloga afronorteamericana, Fatimah Williams Castro quien está trabajando con negritudes en Colombia:
This is from a anthropologost friend, a black North American, Fatimah Williams Castro, who's working on blackness in Colombia:

Here's an article from El Tiempo, the only newspaper with daily national circulation in Colombia, on a group of seven of my friends and I being denied entry into a few 'high end' discotecas in Bogota one night in April. The journalist did not quote me correctly. Being cheeky as always, I said, "Colombian claims to be a classist but not racist society, so to be exempt from racial discrimination I would have to tape my blue passport to my forehead so the first thing people see would be my "status" and not my race/color. The bottom line is that all people deserve respect, period." Also, I'm an anthropologist, not a sociologist. Lastly, the journalist failed to mention that none of us were rude or disrespectful to the bouncers. We have it on tape to prove it.
My friends and I are working with an local lawyers group in Bogota to make a formal demanda/accion de tutela (or court case) against the clubs and this type of discriminatory treatment. The case should go before a judge in early June. Anyone who'd like to be updated just let me know.

> Mayo 17 de 2008 -
> Investigación universitaria muestra latente racismo en algunas
> discotecas de Bogotá
> Los dueños de éstas se defienden: 'Porque devolvemos una vez en un año
> a cuatro negros hay una denuncia'. Las autoridades invitan a que la
> gente no calle estos hechos.
>
>
> Conscientes que el color de piel podía ser un factor a la hora de
> entrar a una discoteca, cinco estudiantes de Derecho de la Universidad
> de Los Andes realizaron un trabajo de campo para comprobarlo.
>
> Junto a siete afrodescendientes (entre ellos dos mujeres
> estadounidense y el periodista de RCN, Jefferson Asprilla), visitaron
> el pasado 19 de abril dos reconocidos establecimientos de la Zona Rosa
> y del Parque de la 93 -Gavanna y Genoveva-.
>
> Con audios y fotografías documentaron el rechazo del que fueron víctimas.
>
> Una de las participantes recuerda que la velocidad con la que se movía
> la fila de entrada se frenó cuando llegó el grupo afro.
>
> 'Después de la última persona mestiza, el bouncer -persona encargada
> de regular el ingreso- interpuso el cordón de la entrada, habló con
> alguien a través del intercomunicador y nos dijo que no podíamos
> ingresar porque había una fiesta privada y necesitábamos un carné para
> ingresar'. Al manifestar que podían adquirir el documento, les dijeron
> que al interior se festejaban las bodas de plata de una pareja, y que
> esa era la razón para no dejarlos entrar.
>
> Luego Fatimah Williams, una de las norteamericanas, comenzó a hablar
> en inglés con su amiga y asegura ahí sí les permitieron ingresar.
>
> 'Decían que buscaban clase en la clientela, y aquí tener clase es
> tener el pasaporte azul en la frente', afirma esta socióloga, que
> adelanta su investigación doctoral en políticas públicas para
> negritudes.
>
> En Genoveva, cuentan los afectados, les querían cobrar un cover de 30
> mil pesos bajo la excusa que el lugar estaba alquilado para una fiesta
> privada, pero dos investigadoras 'blancas' entraron y descubrieron que
> el sitio estaba casi vacío.
>
> Dueños se defienden
>
> Antonio Turbay, socio de Gavanna y Genoveva, dice que 'el bar es
> abierto a todo tipo de personas' y que el incidente ocurrió porque los
> bouncers no tienen autorización para permitir el ingreso de personas
> sin la aprobación del filtro o de los socios, que en ese momento no se
> encontraban.
>
> El público que asiste al lugar es, según algunos de sus
> copropietarios, el de personas 'chéveres', 'relajadas' y parejas.
> Objetan a 'traquetos', mujeres que consideren 'prepago' -usualmente
> acompañadas de extranjeros- o grupos de hombres solos. Turbay asegura
> que ni él ni su bar son racistas, que tiene amigos negros y que se
> crió con muchos de ellos en su casa de las Islas del Rosario.
>
> Cuestiona, además, la actitud del grupo, a quien finalmente se les
> permitió la entrada, y reconoce que cumplían con el filtro. 'Si no
> hubieran sido agresivos habrían ingresado sin problema. Ellos tienen
> su moda y le habrían dado cierto tinte tropical al bar', dice.
>
> Juancho Méndez, otro de los socios, también niega que su bar sea
> racista. Asegura que sí había una fiesta de los papás de uno de los
> socios y cree que el incidente está inflado. '¿Por qué no hay
> denuncias de los blancos que no dejamos entrar, que sí son muchos?
> Porque devolvemos una vez en un año a cuatro negros hay una denuncia'.
>
> Denunciar, la clave
>
> Olga B. Gutiérrez, directora del Instituto de la Participación y
> Acción Comunal, dice que es importante denunciar los abusos. 'Si no,
> no habrá una cultura jurídica que haga punibles esas prácticas'.
>
> Una sentencia de la Corte Constitucional sobre un sonado caso de
> racismo contra un par de hermanas en discotecas de Cartagena en 2004,
> estableció que ni la raza, el estatus o el nivel socioeconómico pueden
> justificar el rechazo.
>
> Fuentes de la Personería aseguran que las denuncias sobre actos
> discriminatorios son mínimas. La última fue hace dos años y fue
> interpuesta por un estadounidense contra el bar Atmósfera.
>
> Sin embargo, uno de los datos más alarmantes del trabajo de campo es
> el de la responsabilidad de los ciudadanos dentro de los procesos de
> discriminación. 'Ellos la ejercen de manera pasiva, pues nunca
> protestan porque se presentan estos hechos', finaliza otro de los
> estudiantes.
>
> Los afro no aceptan que los discriminan
>
> En el caso de Bogotá el racismo no se manifiesta usualmente de maneras
> violentas, sino dentro de prácticas más sutiles. El Observatorio de
> Discriminación Racial de Los Andes, dirigido por César Rodríguez, ha
> recopilado información sobre rechazo de hojas de vida de personas
> afrodescendientes, persecución de éstas en almacenes y tiendas
> mientras compran e insultos y discriminación a la hora de acceder al
> transporte público.
>
> Una de las prácticas más preocupante es la de las trabas a la hora de
> buscar casa. Según algunos de los 10 denunciantes, les suben el precio
> del inmueble respecto al publicado, les hacen preguntas adicionales en
> los formularios o les dicen que los apartamentos ya han sido
> arrendados y los letreros de oferta continúan puestos. 'Esto permanece
> en el silencio'.
>
> La gente tiende a asimilar esas situaciones como normales en lugar de
> denunciarlas', afirma Rodríguez.
>
> CAMILO SIXTO BAQUERO M.
> REDACTOR EL TIEMPO
> cambaq@eltiempo.com.co
>